London Corresponding Society

The London Corresponding Society was a moderate-radical body concentrating on reform of the Parliament of Great Britain, founded on 25 January 1792. The creators of the group were John Frost (1750–1842), an attorney,[1] and Thomas Hardy, a shoemaker and metropolitan Radical. The aim of the society was parliamentary reform, especially the expansion of the representation of working class people.

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The society irritated the establishment with its opposition to the wars with France and was deeply infiltrated by spies. A British Convention of reform group leaders in Edinburgh organised by the Scottish "Friends of the People" society in October 1793 was broken up and a number of men were arrested and tried for sedition. The LCS representatives, Gerrald and Maragot, were sentenced to fourteen years transportation. John Frost received only six months for his sedition.[1] Undaunted, the remaining LCS leaders met with other reformist groups, including the Society for Constitutional Information, in 1794 to discuss a further national convention as well as producing a large number of pamphlets and periodicals.

In March 1796 leading LCS men John Binns and John Gale Jones were arrested. In 1798 the society became increasingly split and in 1799 it and several other radical groups were declared illegal under the Corresponding Societies Act. The LCS effectively ended then, although it maintained a vague, informal existence for a little time after. But the ideas had an influence on the 19th century Reform Bills and on Chartism.